Access Measures Do Not Reflect Actual Access in Urology Clinics

Introduction: Improvement in new patient access to urologic care is important and is increasingly measured as a reflection of practice quality. Two broad categories affect patient access: provider issues and patient preferences. We chose to study the previously unreported patient choices that affect access delays between the time a urology appointment is requested and the urology appointment itself. Methods: A 3-week real time telephone survey was conducted with callers seeking a urology appointment. If the callers did not choose the first available appointment, they were questioned as to why they did not. This data was then compared to a 3-month access delay graph noting the number of new patients offered each day. Results: Adult and pediatric urologic clinics were evaluated separately. For adult clinics, 14% of patients chose not to accept the first available appointments and 5% sought urologic care elsewhere. For pediatric clinics, 44% delayed access beyond the first available appointment. Of these, 26% were asked by the physician to delay in order to time appointments with imaging studies on the same day, or were advised to wait longer because of the nature of the patient’s diagnosis. Parents’ choice delayed 18% of the appointments beyond the first available appointment. Discussion: These data reveal that about 85% of new patient access falls within the provider’s control. The other 15% of delays rest on the preferences of the patients. These decisions significantly skew the access delay data that is increasingly being used to measure the quality of a urology practice.